Recent reviews by Dr. Mantis Toboggan

Brief, but exceptional. Can't recommend enough! So many positives: puzzles don't rely on moon logic, great writing/translation, and a fun plot that keeps you wanting more. Really surprised at how much fun I had with this.

A triumph of an RPG - can't recommend it enough. Excels beyond just an homage to Paper Mario and stands tall with its own identity and feeling. Couldn't really get into Bug Fables, but this sucked me in immediately with an immaculate sheen of polish. Play it!!

The negative reviews are honestly baffling. I've played the PSX, SNES, and PSP versions of this game and can still wholeheartedly recommend this iteration. Tactics Ogre has never been more accessible and fun!

There's a significant amount of changes, alterations, removals, and tweaks - but still at its heart Tactics Ogre is a sweeping epic full of content and heart. Want to micromanage your squad and chase down a 100 floor dungeon for the best loot? Go ahead! Want to ignore it and do a crazy self-imposed challenge instead? Extremely viable!

The game looks great, plays smoothly and voice acting is a welcome addition. The story is as captivating and mature as ever. You have a ridiculous amount of control over the types of units that compose your army, and with the scouting feature the game urges you to have a diverse set of units. The game becomes closer to a chess-like puzzle than a pure SRPG when it comes to unit selection, and I personally enjoy that feeling.

Really feeling the love for a 30-ish year series here.

Story is a little silly and the whole affair feels like an early 2000's forum chat inside-joke fest, but the mechanics are incredibly solid and the gameplay is ludicrously fun. Easy recommend for any old-school FPS fans. Definitely play on Hard if you're comfortable with old Build games and Doom-likes.

Some of the levels are really impressive in scope and size. Enemy types are varied enough to always keep the action fun, and the weapons are creative while still feeling useful.

Can definitely recommend the fist episode being worth the EA price already. Love all the inspirations in gameplay and enemy call-outs ("eat lead!", "catch this!", "suck it down!") The devs definitely did their homework! Can't wait for the next two episodes.

A complete return to form for the Serious Sam series. Seriously. Serious Sam 3/BFE and 4 seem like jokes in comparison to the quality of Siberian Mayhem. The pacing is tight, the new weapons feel great, and the levels actually reward exploration instead of having numerous dead-ends. Plus the vehicle sections are pure ultraviolence magic. Seriously some of the most visceral fun I've had in ANY FPS in a LONG time.

Most importantly, the game throws HUNDREDS of baddies at you in a way that feels way more congruent with Serious Sam TFE/TSE/2/TNE. I blazed through the single player campaign on Normal in about 6 hours - I definitely could've secret hunted for longer, and I'd really like to do a co-op playthrough with the 2x enemy multiplier! Game's a steal, and I highly recommend for a seriously good time.

I love this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game so much, and I wish the others in the series were translated.

ArtDink was a pioneer in experimental gameplay, and Lunatic Dawn PoTB is a marvelous little thing. Best I can describe it - it's a fantasy JRPG world simulator with dungeon crawling elements. The game world continues to spin even after your chosen main character dies. Continue your adventure as one of your party members - bang your ex-hero's wife/husband. Settle down. Die of old age. Stop armageddon. Track a bard across the world. Take bounties. Grow your reputation. Become an assassination target due to aforementioned banging of wife/husband. Watch the grains in the sands of time dissolve away.

For the love of god use the translation patch, and read my translated notes from the official player's guide - it will help SO MUCH! https://steamcommunity.com/app/335420/discussions/0/2673381967531201203/

In over 15 years on Steam I have left two reviews. This game merits #3 - it's a tremendous remaster and delivers on what was promised (an _exact_ remaster of the game), with some additional quality of life changes (e.g., dedicated sneaking button) and a new multiplayer horde mode.

* The graphics are great. Some of the larger set pieces are really just gorgeous.
* The controls handle well, and are responsive for a platformer. I had no issues using a 360 controller.
* The music and sound design is excellent, although it seems like a few issues from the original have carried over, mainly that certain dialogue clips are played at an extremely low volume.
* The gameplay is the same! If you like 3D quasi-collectathon platformers, and especially if you are a Spongebob fan, this game is an instant recommend. If you aren't fond of this genre, I'm not sure if it'll win you over. It's still charming as hell.

This game is a love letter to the fans, lock stock and barrel. Buy it!

An absolute masterpiece. killer7 is one of the more unique gaming experiences that you'll ever have - do yourself a favor - ignore every single review and spoiler you see here. Go in fresh and confused, and I can promise that it will be a hell of a ride.

The game shines in HD - the deliberate camera angles and minimalist approach to texturing really "open up" with the increased aspect ratio. As far as I'm concerned, that's all a decent port needs: support for modern OS's, correct remastering to HD/4K resolutions, and other small quality-of-life fixes, such as improved loading times (TRY PLAYING IT ON A GAMECUBE) and proper controller support.

Go play this game. If certain films can teach you the language of the cinema such that you never really view movies the same, I would argue that after a playthrough of killer7 you'll certainly approach video games differently.

"The world never changes. It only turns."

This is an excellent game. In its simplest form, it is an improvement on the roguelike/deckbuilder Dream Quest. The two games' similarity, however, is only confined to the premise and basic gameplay elements. Monster Slayers is a coherent and stylish rouge-like/lite (whatever) that is a legitimate treat to play. The gameplay is refreshing, simple, and has an excellent skill ceiling - which is driven by the player's selection of class. Rogue = OP at first (the dev nerfed it in like two days!), warrior = average, mage = hard mode. Each class receives a deck containing various starting cards (as well as future cards) and then battles their way through one of the levels. After level 3, you win!

Other reviews have already gone into deeper into the mechanics, so I'll stop there. If you enjoy video games - buy this game.

I've had a steam account for over 13 years, and this is the only review that I've felt compelled to write (or, that I can remember feeling the need to review - I'm pretty baked)